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The Seven Stars was situated at 581 Lightwood Road.

In the mid-1960s My Dad was the tenant of an Ind Coope house on Lightwood Hill, the Stone road out of Longton, called the Seven Stars. It has now not only closed but has been demolished in the last few years, and was latterly renamed the Lightwood Tavern. I believe there had been an old pub there but the one we moved into when I was a middle teenager was an ultra-modern place: two large bars with central back-to-back serving areas at car-park level, a cellar with dray access at lower level (because we were on a steep hill) and upstairs living accommodation and a flat roof above all. The pub had opened with an Ind Coope manager and he had been a disaster area; Dad was the first tenant and he and Mum turned it into a great success. Mum did chicken rolls and served cooked meals weekday lunch times; there was no menu choice, you got what she was cooking and was very popular among managers from the pot banks down in town. Unfortunately, Mum and Dad hadn't been born into the trade and weren't very business-minded, they just gave a brilliant welcome, good beer and excellent service, mainly themselves with a few faithful paid staff at busiest times. The work nearly killed Mum and Ind Coope let them early off their 3-year contract on compassionate grounds. Dad and I cleaned the beer delivery system every Sunday morning starting at 7.00am, finishing at 12 noon to open up to the punters. We had a gas cellar, no manual pumps, with CO2 cylinders delivering the beer to taps up at the bars. The Ind Coope bitter came in wooden kilderkins (18 UK gallons) and the Double Diamond in steel kegs. Watney's Red Barrel came in steel 9 gallon kegs. That was all the beer we served on draught and we got through it very rapidly. Dad sometimes had to drive to Ind Coope's depot at Hanley between dray deliveries, to fetch an extra barrel to tide us over. It was a great couple of years of my life; I wouldn't have changed it for anything. I eventually became a Methodist minister but still like a drop of good ale now and again (Adnams became my firm favourite). I think I could still tap a wooden barrel if called upon without losing more than a thimbleful of the amber nectar.

David Gibson (February 2026)

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